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Turning a microwave into a home bank
TECHNOLOGY
NIGGARDLY husbands may have long suspected their wives of cooking the books when it comes to keeping the household accounts. But when they hear shouts of "balance", "pay bill" or "loan" coming from the kitchen they should resist the urge to summon the men in white coats. The explanation could be a remarkable new gadget which aims to combine a microwave oven with a home-banking terminal. The Microwave Bank from NCR has attracted interest from several high street banks, including Lloyds, TSB and Barclays, which already offer their own Internet banking service. In addition to carrying out most of your banking transactions, the Microwave Bank's other features will allow you to surf the net, send e-mail, watch television, and of course, cook your dinner all from the comfort of your kitchen. However, you must remember not to put coins in the microwave. More seriously, security remains a worry. To stop unauthorised transactions the machine is expected to offer sophisticated devices, perhaps voice recognition, iris and fingerprint scanning or password protection. Most of the clever stuff is in the door, which has been fitted with a touch-sensitive screen and microphone. This allows the prototype machine to be controlled by either your voice or finger. NCR hopes to have a commercial version of the microwave bank available within two years. There should be no need to worry about having to install a telephone line into the kitchen as the machine aims to use the new technology at present being developed by the electricity companies allowing you to connect to the Internet via the mains plug. Sarah Woods, lead designer of the NCR Knowledge Lab, started the Microwave Bank project just eight months ago. She said: "A lot of people feel intimidated by computers but they want many of the services that they deliver, such as the Internet and e-mail. I am sure that devices like the Microwave Bank will become commonplace in the future." The Microwave Bank can also be fitted with a barcode reader that can be used to produce a shopping list. For example, before you throw a can of beans into the bin, passing it across the microwave's barcode reader adds beans to your shopping list. - The Daily Telegraph
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